Of course this is not game related (we do not expect to be doing any further
game coverage today), but with the legit news sites being almost impossible to
access at times today, we've been getting loads of requests for more information
about what's been going on. Here is the latest as of about 9:00 PM EDT:

President Bush addressed the nation 8:30 PM EDT. Here's a wire report:
WASHINGTON (AP)
- A grim-faced President Bush condemned ghastly attacks in Washington and
New York on Tuesday and vowed to "find those responsible and bring them
to justice." In the second Oval Office address of his presidency, Bush
said the United States would retaliate against ``those behind these evil
acts,'' and any country that harbors them.

To recap:

In two separate attacks, hijacked planes struck both main towers of the
World Trade Center in Manhattan this morning, and both of the "twin
towers" subsequently collapsed.

A hijacked plane struck the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and part of it
has collapsed as well.

A hijacked plane crashed in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Reports
indicate the hijackers planned to crash this plane into Camp David in
Maryland.

47 Story WTC building seven, one of the five (relatively) smaller
buildings in the World Trade Center also later collapsed from ancillary
damage.

The White House, the Pentagon, and the Capitol Building were all
evacuated, all domestic flights in the US have been grounded through at
least noon tomorrow.

Other closings include most federal offices, the stock markets, the Disney
theme parks, and the cancellation of today's Major League Baseball schedule.
The President's speech announced that all federal agencies will be open for
business tomorrow.

Broadcasts out of Afghanistan showed evidence of missile attacks and
antiaircraft fire, but what connection this has to today's apparent
terrorist attacks in the US is not clear at this point. The US has denied
involvement in these attacks.

In the first hints of any sort at the scope of casualties, the New York
City Fire Department has estimated that as many as half of the 400
firefighters dispatched to the scene are missing. CNN has said that 78
Police officers are missing. Also, the death toll from those on the four
hijacked planes has been placed at 266. The number of dead and injured at
the Pentagon has been widely reported as about 100. No estimates of the
number of victims from the World Trade Center have been made.

All of our thoughts go out to the victims of these attacks and their families
and friends in what must be an incredibly difficult time.

View

512.

Eradication...

Sep 13, 2001, 19:44

anon@134.197

... of a country is not the way.

If we really feel threatened, we need to go after only those responsible, and not civilians, or entire countries.

Sure, we can destroy Afghanistan, but we know the real problem there is Bin Laden himself, and the Taliban.

We have to strike a balance when it comes to protecting our interests, and the interests of others. Our interests can be viewed as morally superior to those of terrorists, but we should never view them as morally superior to the interests of people who are not terrorists, but might not be our best friends in the world.

"Might makes right" is not the type of philosophy a civilized nation needs to live by in order to protect its interests. We cannot, and should not expect the rest of the world to conform to us because we can beat them into submission.

We need to control people who are a danger to Earth's societies, but we have to be careful in order not to permanently disturb a group of people just because their way of life is different than ours.

Abusing people and trying to convert them to "our way" is not the right way of going about things. By doing that, we lose entire perspectives on the world and supplant them with our own.

Just because we're not going to get immediate repayment for our charitable efforts, doesn't mean the efforts are not worth it.

It's a matter of nationalism. Nationalism can be a terrible thing. We put barriers between ourselves simply because of our geographical origin.